Monday, November 2, 2009

This is a little anthology of Reb Nachman's teachings about joy. What is the difference between sadness and joy? Joy really fills you; whatever you have is fuller, and sadness empties you out. "I don't have this, I don't have that," so even what you have you don't have. People walk around sad because they don't know what to do with their future. You have this minute right now. What are you doing with it? The difference between sadness and joy is very simple.
Sadness always tells you, "Oy Vey! What are you going to do in ten minutes? What will you do ten years from now?" If you are really filled with joy for one minute, then you will know what to do the next minute also.
What is G-d giving you? He is giving you this minute. He hasn't given tomorrow, He promised He will give tomorrow. Of course I don't know what to do tomorrow, because I didn't receive it yet. Sadness is very much concerned with what I don't have, and I really don't have tomorrow yet.
Why, if somebody dies, G-d forbid, are you filled with sadness? Because somebody isn't there, right? The depths of joy and sadness are 'being" and "not being". If you get something you are happy. The more you get it, the deeper you get it, the deeper is your joy.
Have you ever seen people who are so happy when they have an excuse to be sad? One woman said to me, "I can't talk to my mother unless I am sick." When she is sick then her mother has something to say. There are certain parts of a person which react only to "not being". We have to wipe them out. There are some people who say, "I am just happy." Have you ever seen women when they come out of the beauty parlor saying, "It is a beautiful day, and I am happy"? What are you happy about? What did you get? You got today, but what are you doing with it? Don't kid yourself. You cannot be happy unless you have something. If you say, "I'm just happy happy why? Because the beauty parlor instead of charging you $35 only charged $29 and you give a tip of $2 so you saved $4? Reb Nachman says if you are happy for no reason, without doing something good, you are just kidding yourself. On the contrary, the reaction to this kind of joy will be that you will be knocked down low five minutes later. If you can be happy just because you are alive then you have something, if you really feel it. Everyone says they are happy they are alive, but the question is, are you really receiving life? That is the highest level there is. Most people don't realize that life is a gift from G-d, and most people are not happy. It says, skhar mitzva mitzva, the reward of a mitzva is a mitzva, and the reward oi joy is joy. How does G-d pay you off for being happy? He gives you another minute of hapiness, so if this one minute of happiness is real, the next minute will be also. But if you say, "I'm so happy to be alive", and the next minute you are walking around like a dope, there was something wrong.
The truth is, I am always standing before nothingness, because I am non-existent yet for the next minute. I'm not there yet. Time isn't there. The world isn't there. The world is here right now. One split second, one billionth of a split second in the future has not been created yet. I am always standing between "being" and "not being", between Heaven and Hell. Hell is the utmost of not being. What is happening in Hell? I am not burning like a hamburger. In Hell I realize that I was non-existent. Do you know how it feels if you are suddenly non-existent? G-d forbid, that it ever happen to anybody. Imagine, suddenly you don't have a hand. What a horrible feeling. Imagine if suddenly you are there, and you see that you are not there; you would see yourself not being. It is unbearable. There are two kinds of "not being". One way of not being is when you are just physically not there, but imagine if you are there and you are not there. That is what really hurts. If I love somebody very much, and they are not here, so they are not here. It is sad. Imagine they would be sitting next to me and they won't talk to me. That is a deep kind of "not being" which hurts. Hell is that I am there, but I am not there. -------->>>>> read on next #2